Birreria

"One of my favorite places in the world is Italy.  One of my favorite places in New York City is Eataly."

How I started my previous post about Eataly, the massive food emporium across the street from Madison Square Park and the Flatiron Building.  Eataly has multiple stellar restaurants, including a rooftop restaurant/beer garden called Birreria. Although a trip to Birreria is perfect on those lazy summer evenings, they apparently invested in some heat lamps so you can enjoy the beer flowing all year long.

A lazy summer evening to Birreria also ensures you will be drinking and dining with a huge audience of people, though. When we visited, the bar was extremely crowded and noisy with the after-work corporate crowd.  I had a glass of prosecco at the bar (wine list curated by Joe Bastianich) and a sip of the locally-brewed cask ale beer.  By locally-brewed, I mean they brew beer in big ol' tanks beside the restaurant and serve out of giant barrels behind the bar.  I tried the Pilot Batch, a very dark beer that surprisingly did not have a very aggressive hoppy flavor.

After sipping our drinks at the bar, we wandered over to the restaurant for a selection of sliced meats (salumi misti).  This included long strips of speck (prosciutto), spicy sopressata, mortadella studded with creamy fat and olives, cacciatorini, and coppa (the last two I couldn't tell from each other).  The one problem with Birreria is that all the food on the menu sounds so delectable that I could easily rack up a massive bill attempting to sample all its offerings.

After our summer outing, I'm hoping that a visit to Birreria in the winter will still be warm but a little less hectic so I can enjoy the glorious views of the Flatiron Building and the Empire State Building while sipping on a tall chilly glass of beer.